All Windows Server 2016 customers will get the commercially available Docker engine for no additional cost, Microsoft officials announced today, which is a good fit, given built-in containers are a key new feature of Windows Server 2016.

Microsoft is offering free Windows Server 2016 datacenter licenses to VMware users (with some caveats) as part of a nine-month promotion for its latest server product. Microsoft previously revealed licensing information for Windows Server 2016; some of the conditions around licensing Nano Server, Microsoft’s new stripped-down Windows Server installation option, are worth close examination by customers.

Azure Stack — Microsoft’s tailored operating system based on Windows Server which shares programming interfaces and services with Microsoft’s Azure public cloud — won’t be available until mid-2017. Microsoft recently shifted strategies and plans for Azure Stack.

It now will be a turnkey bundle with Dell, HPE, and Lenovo servers, rather than something users and partners can use on hardware of their choice.

Technical preview 2 of Azure Stack will reflect some of the changes under the covers Microsoft has made since it delivered Azure Stack Technical Preview 1 back in January 2016. (Microsoft should be revealing more details of the new services in Technical Preview 2 later this week at Ignite.)